The Week in Review
25 Billion App Downloads by 2015
Juniper Research reports that though app downloads were at 2.6 billion in 2009, this figure is expected to boom to more than 25 billion in 2015. Apple has started a big trend, but app stores need to keep scalability in mind. The report also notes that freemium is becoming the prevalent business model. (Juniper Research)
Inactive Subscribers
Hotmail’s new features, while great for users, spells trouble for e-mail marketers. This pushes all e-mail marketers to be proactive in their efforts to maintain a good standing with recipients. For those marketers that have a big chunk of dead, unresponsive weight at the bottom of their lists, housekeeping and “win-back” campaigns are necessary. (Econsultancy)
Content Farms Explained
Content farms are the subject of increasing conversation these days. Demand Media and Suite 101 are shoulder-to-shoulder with the likes of About.com and Associated Content in the race to drape content over every mainstream and niche topic out there. Farming the Web is a rich business. (ReadWriteWeb)
Ad Spending Recovery for SMBs
According to WebVisible, ad spending by small and medium-sized business rose 160 percent from a year ago, thrust forward by spending by businesses dealing in jewelry, loans, mortgages and job recruitment services. (socalTECH.com)
Facebook is Unsatisfying
What does Facebook have in common with airline companies and cable providers? Poor consumer satisfaction scores, according to ForeSee Results. The social network got a 64 out of 100 in the latest index, while Wikipedia.org got a 77 and YouTube got a 73. Consumers appreciate Facebook’s ability to connect them with friends, but they don’t like the privacy/security concerns, the technology behind the news feeds, advertising, the constant updates to the interface, spam and navigation. (CNET)
Google Images Gets a Facelift, Search Ads
Some of you may have already noticed the brand spanking new Google Images. If not, read about how the new product allows marketers to put the image of their choice next to their advertisements – Image Search Ads. The tiled layout also allows Google Images to show more than 1,000 photos on a single results page. (Official Google Blog, ReadWriteWeb)
Twitter’s @earlybird Doesn’t Catch the Typo
If you’re familiar with mistakenly publishing typos on Twitter, maybe this will give you some comfort. Twitter’s very own @earlybird account tweeted about a deal on an HDTV yesterday. The problem was that the code had an extra “E” in it. (WebProNews)
Fewer Unemployeds Starting Companies
The latest report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas shows that just 3.7 percent of unemployed workers started their own businesses instead of look for a job in the first half of the year, down from 7.6 percent in the first half of 2009, and down even further from 9.6 percent in the second half of 2009. This is yet another reason why job creation has failed to take off. (ReadWriteWeb)
Customer Co-Creation
The practice of allowing customers to build their own products is gaining ground – just look at Rickshaw Bagworks and Shortomatic. NikeID’s huge success, Blue Nile’s stellar first quarter and the emergence of co-creation startups like Blank-label and Delusha are among the signs that co-creation is a trend to keep your eye on. (VentureBeat)
The US is Sucking at Broadband
The U.S. has fallen behind Sweden in the broadband realm, according to the Connectivity Scorecard. The U.S. scored a 7.77 out of 10, while Sweden scored a 7.95. Where it needs to pick things up is in the infrastructure arena. (GigaOM)
SEO Profiles: Spammers vs. White Hatters
SEO Spammers are often found around forums, link farm sites and link brokering areas. They’re scavengers and are often solitary, alienating many. White Hatters, on the other hand, are found in genuine blog networks taking part in discussions with meaningful contributions. They’re predators and are networkers, giving and taking as an active player in a community. While Spammers might be able to get high rankings, it’s not really sustainable. The natural way of going about things is far more sustainable. White Hatters also win the conversions battlefield – easily. (Search Engine Journal)
‘Gamestorming’
We’re built to play games – so why not embrace that in the workplace? The knowledge economy that’s so prevalent today, mingled with telecommuters, makes it hard to be creative, passionate, engaged. This only increases the need for “gamestorming,” a Silicon Valley-based approach that necessitates the rapid co-design and co-development of ideas. (O’Reilly Radar)
Four Link Building Mistakes
Buying links is a risky proposition, so don’t compound the risk by failing to explain the risks of paid links to a client before you start to buy, not answering “yes” when a webmaster asks if a paid link can be harmful for his/her site, and not giving a reason when you ask to move your link from one page to another. (Search Engine Journal)
Privacy Pricing
The day where personal online information becomes an asset that can be a traded virtual currency is fast approaching, according to some. But how much is personal information worth? A study conducted by three Carnegie Mellon University scholars attempted to delve into this question by using $10 gift cards and $12 gift cards. The conclusion: “When you have privacy, you value it more. But when the starting point is that we feel we don’t have privacy, we value privacy far less.” (NYTimes.com)
Beyond Web 2.0 and Social
Here’s a brief history of Web 2.0 and the social Web. Today, it’s much more about data than social. Though the current stage of the Web is nameless (for now), it’s still a “read/write Web – only now you’re reading and writing data from much more than just social services. You’re increasingly interacting with ‘things,’ organizations, government – virtually anything that can connect to the Web.” (ReadWriteWeb)
Pixazza: AdSense for Images
Pixazza, a Google Ventures-backed photo tagging services that’s something like an “AdSense for Images” has raised $12 million in Series B funding. The company, which found its roots in “Sex in the City,” faces some competition, but has plenty of wiggle room in a sea of 3 trillion images on the Internet. (TechCrunch)
How to Speed Up WordPress
Among the 11 ways to speed up WordPress are caching, choosing the right host (NGINX, anyone?), choosing the right theme, compressing images and keeping your code clean. (Mashable)
Apple Still King of Mobile
While Android is picking up ground, Apple remains the leader in the mobile realm, according to Millennial Media’s report for June. Though the iPhone 4 was only out for about a week in June, Apple remained the top manufacturer in the U.S. during the month, with 29.53 percent of the market, followed by Samsung with 17.28 percent and RIM with 9.11 percent. Apple OS led all other smart phones in terms of ad impressions, with 56 percent, followed by 17 percent for RIM and 11 percent for Android. For all single-platform developers, 57 percent focus on iOS, 31 percent focus on Android and 8 percent focus on RIM. (Mashable)
Old Spice, by the Numbers
The Old Spice YouTube response campaign was wildly successful, of course, but what were the concrete figures? Well, more than 180 videos were pumped out, 5.9 million views were racked up and about 22,500 comments were gleaned – all since Tuesday. “Old Spice Responses” has already become one of the most popular viral campaigns of all time. Copycats: start your engines. (Mashable, CNET)
Ten Ways to Advertise Your Company on Facebook
Making a Facebook page is just the beginning – promoting your page off-site, making your page interesting and offering your fans exclusive offers are just some of the ways you can enhance your efforts via the social network. (Econsultancy)
Keywords: Not What You May Think
When you see the words “cordless telephone headset,” what do you think of? Are you aware that there are two ways to read that simple phrase? This is just one example that paints a plain picture of why it’s important to understand your visitors’ intent with keywords. Checking search results for your keywords might do wonders for tweaking and honing your efforts. (Search Engine Guide)
Rebtel: International Calls for Free
Rebtel uses local phone numbers to offer Android users free international calls by way of an app. Though the free-ness is only available to Android-to-Android calls, there are discounted rates available to other users. (NYTimes.com)
E-Mail and Social Networks Get Along
Who says e-mail and social networking sites can’t co-exist? A new study from ExactTarget and CoTweet finds that the two forms of communication get along just fine, and that many consumers cross-check content from e-mail messages with those on Facebook and Twitter to assess quality. The study also finds that nearly all consumers are open to commercial messages in their inboxes, which present the easiest form of engagement for marketers. (MarketingCharts)
World Cup Lessons
Now that the dust has settled, here’s a look at the winning and losing brands from the World Cup. News sites saw big-time traffic, vuvuzelas were popular on search engines and Twitter saw a new tweets-per-second record. Brands like Bavaria beer, which used an unconventional form of marketing (dressing 36 blondes in mini-dresses) won out. The lessons for brands and businesses include the need to bid on all related keywords, using mobile search and monitoring trends and emerging searches. (Econsultancy)
What to do with Passwords
What’s the best thing to do with all those passwords you’ve created? Services like Password Safe are dandy, but writing passwords down on paper is just fine for people without computers at their fingertips at all times. Other methods discussed here are sheer memory, a USB-based password manager and password storage places in the cloud. (CNET)
Chatroulette Gets More Customized
The online video chat platform recently added Localroulette and Channelroulette to its bare-boned product. (Mashable)
PCs are Fine
According to IDC, 81.5 million PCs were shipped in the second quarter of 2010, up 22.4 percent from the same period in 2009. “The factors which led to the recent PC rebound — an aging commercial installed base, a proliferation of low-cost media-centric PCs, and low PC penetration through much of the world — remain key drivers going forward,” said an analyst. (MarketWatch.com)
Hulu Ads Are Viewed a Lot More than YouTube Ads
The latest figures from comScore show that Hulu drew 566 million ad views in June, more than twice as many as the 200 million ad views for Google Sites. (TechCrunch)
Back-to-School Coupons Are Influential
Nearly 80 percent of consumer respondents to a Burst Media survey said online coupons for back-to-school shopping could influence their purchase decisions. Shoppers for college students are going to spend the most. Friends, TV, movies and music are all influential in shaping brand and product influences. (MediaPost)
Venture Capital Lives in California
A recent report from CB Insights found that California boasted more than half of all venture dollars in the second quarter. More than $3 billion in VC was injected into companies during that period, most going to health care and Internet companies. (CNET)
ZocDoc Gets $15 Million in Second-Round Funding
ZocDoc, the New York-based medical scheduling website, raised $15 million in its second round of institutional funding. The site, which is an “OpenTable for doctors,” has handled more than 1 million appointments. (VentureBeat)
Top 10 Free PPC Tools
Spyfu, Typo Generator, MSN Ad Lab and, of course, Google are among the top 10 free PPC tools. Google could have its own list. (Search Engine Journal)
10% of Google Queries are Mobile
A Citi analyst uses comScore data to conclude that 10 percent of Google queries are mobile searches. Meanwhile, an analyst from Internet2Go says that mobile could be a billion-dollar revenue stream for Google within five years. (ReadWriteWeb)
Referrals are Important for E-Mail Marketing
Referrals streamline the sales process and lead to longer-term customers that have longer lifetime customer values. Asking for referrals with every e-mail communication sent to customers, including a referral link in a sidebar or footer in an e-newsletter and mirroring referral requests on blogs, websites and social media are a few ideas for incorporating referrals into your e-mail efforts. (MediaPost)
Location-Based Users Have Privacy Concerns
According to a survey commissioned by Webroot, 55 percent of location-based users fear the loss of privacy, while 45 percent feared letting burglars know when they were away from home. Women were more worried than men, while older mobile users were more concerned than their younger counterparts. Still, it seems that plenty of users are willing to take on some of those risks. Taking the same old preventative steps are key to protecting yourself while using LBS. (ReadWriteWeb)
